Infant&#39;s toilet seat



i) 1954 o. R SMITII-I, JR 2,679,053

- INFANTS' TOILET SEAT Filed Oct. 19, 1950 3] Z9 Z6 J6 37 3maentor I0445 1 5M/rh: J

Gttomeg Patented May 25, I954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE INFANTS TOILETSEAT Dale P. Smith, Jr., Huntington Park, Calif. Application October 19,1950, Serial No. 191,019

2 Claims.

This invention relates to toilet seats for infants and deals moreparticularly with the type that are attached to toilets for adult use.

Prior devices of this nature had a major fault in that separatemanipulation of the infants seat was necessary to give access to theadults seat. Most toilets are provided with a lid that covers the seatopening and the same is, of course, raised. In the mentioned earlierdevices, it is necessary to raise both the lid and the infants seatseparately.

It is an object of the present invention to so combine an infants seatand the lid of a toilet that the lid alone or both the lid and said seatcan be raised, as desired.

Another object of the invention is to so combine the lid and infantsseat that both together, when the latter is folded, occupy the samespace as the lid alone, thus providing a neat structure that outwardlyhas the appearance of a conventional lid.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel infants seat thatfolds to a fiat condition of such small thickness that the same residesentirely within a seat or cavity formed in the lid and is flush with theunder face of said lid.

The invention also has for its objects to provide such means that arepositive in operation,

convenient in use, easily installed in a working position and easilydisconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple,and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novelcombinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear inthe course of the following description. However, the drawings merelyshow and the following description merely describes one embodiment ofthe present invention, which is given by way of illustration or exampleonly.

In the drawings, like reference characters designate similar parts inthe several views.

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a toilet seat structureaccording to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan and sectional View as taken on line 2-2 of Fig.1, and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged, partly broken, side vie of the seat in anintermediate position between fully folded and fully opened positions.

In a conventional manner, the bowl 5 is provided with an adults seat 6and with a lid or cover I to cover the opening of said seat. A pivot bar8 at the rear of the bowl and supported by standards 9, pivotally mountsthe seat and lid so that the lid alone or the lid and seat may be swungupwardly to an erect position. While otherwise conventional, the lid 1,according to the present invention, is provided with a cavity l9 thatfaces downwardly when said lid is down. A folding infants seat H ishoused within said cavity, is separately connected to pivot bar 8 bymeans of an extension [2, and is retained in said cavity by means of areleasable latch 13. It will be clear that, when latched together, thelid l and folded seat ll moves together on bar 8 in the same manner asif the lid did not house an infants seat, since the same move on acommon pivot axis.

The seat ll comprises, generally, a seat board it, a seat back l5, andside arms H3. The board and back are connected by aligned hinges II.

The seat board It is shaped substantially in accordance with the shapeof cavity iii to freely fit thereinto and to have its under face itgenerally flush with the under face I9 of lid 1. A central ovate opening29 is formed in seat board 18, the same being smaller than andsubstantially centered with the comparable opening 2! of seat 6.

The seat back i5 is formed to have a panel part 22 approximately thewidth of the seat board, and a, thickened back pad 23 that is shaped tofreely fit into ovate opening 29, the same completing the flushappearance of the under face of the structure. It will be seen that inthe closed or folded condition of Fig. l, the seat back i5 is superposedon seat board It on the inner side of cavity l0 and that hinges H are onthe same side and, therefore, concealed by the seat board.

Each side arm It comprises an arm rest 24 that is connected by a pivot25 to an edge of seat a back panel 22, and a brace 26 pivoted at 2! tothe seat board and at 28 to the arm rest. The latter comprises a part 29which is carried by pivot 25 and is provided with an end socket 30 totelescopically receive and guide an arm rest extension 3|. The pivot 28is provided in said extension. A pin-and-slot connection 32 slidablyconnects extension 3| and arm rest part 29.

It will be noted from Fig. 2 that the side edges of back panel 22 arenotched, as at 33, to accommodate arm rest parts 29 whereby the latterare enabled to lie, for the most part, within the side peripheral edgesof the seat board l8 and against the upper face of said seat board, thesum of the thicknesses of the seat board and arm rest part 29 beingequal to the depth of cavity l E to achieve the mentioned flushcondition of the lid and the seat board.

The braces 26 are arranged alongside the side edges of the seat boardand are so formed as not to laterally overhang arm rest parts 28. Theend of each brace at pivots 28 reside in slots provided in armextensions 3|, as indicated in Fig. 3. .To allow fiat folding of theseat, a recess 34 is formed in each arm rest part 29 to accommodate thebearings 35 on board 18 that carry pivots 21.

It will be clear that when lid 1 is raised to the dot-dash line positionof Fig. 1, seat II will be similarly raised. However, upon depression oflatch 13 to release engagement with the seat, the lid alone will beraised leaving the folded seat ll superposed on seat 6. Now the seatback l5 may be raised on its hinges I! to effect unfolding of the foldedarm rests it. By providing abutments 36 (Fig. 3), the erect position ofthe seat back is limited to a suitable slightly rearward angle as shownby the dot-dash lines of Fig. 1. An abutment shoulder 31 on each end ofbraces 26 limits the unfolding movemeht of said braces. The pin-and-slotconnections 32 limit the telescopic extension of arm rests 16 so that arigid open condition of the seat If is achieved wherein seat back may beswung through a greater are of movement than braces 26. Thus, by asimple upward-swinging movement of the seat back, the seat II isunfolded. The seat is as easily folded by pushing down on the seat back.

The latch i3 may be depressedby one finger of the hand that raises lid 1and said latch may automatically engage the end of seat board [8 whenthe lid is dropped.

To enable removal of seat i I for use elsewhere,

the extension I2 is formed of separable parts 38 and 3,9 that arereleasably connected as by a turn-bblt 40. As shown, part 38 is fixedlyconnected to seat board [8 while part 39 has hooking engagement at 4|with part 38. The turn-bolt if) is carried by part 38 and extendsthrough a slot 42 provided in part 38. The parts are locked when thehead of the turn-bolt stands transverse to slot 42, as shown. When saidhead is turned to align with said slot, parts 38 and 39 may be separatedto effect their removal from pivot bar 8.

While the invention that has been illustrated and described is nowregarded as the preferred embodiment, the construction is, of course,subject to modifications without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention. It is, therefore, not desired to restrict the inventionto the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but tocover all modifications that may fall Within the scope of the appendedclaims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired to besecured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a toilet seat structure, a lid having a downwardly facing cavity,a folded seat residing within said cavity, hinges for said lid and seaton a common axis and said axis being disposed rearward of the lid andseat, said lid having an opening therethrough adjacent the forward endthereof, and a latch carried by the lid in latching engagement with theseat and provided with an operating member extending through saidopening and accessible from the upper side of the lid, said folded seatcomprising a seat board secured to said seat hinge, a seat back hingedto the rearward portion of said seat board, a pair of braces pivoted tothe forward portion of said seat board on opposite sides thereof and apair of arm rests each having one end thereof pivotally connected tosaid seat back and the other end pivotally connected to one of saidbraces, each of said arm rests being comprised of two members slidablelongitudinally of each other so that said folded seat can behorizontally within said cavity and can be extended to place said seatback in substantially vertical position and said arm rests insubstantially horizontal position above said seat board.

2. In a toilet seat structure, a lid having a downwardly facing cavity,a folded seat residing within said cavity, hinges for said lid and seaton a common axis and said axis being disposed rearward of the lid andseat, said folded seat comprising a seat board secured to said seathinge, a seat back hinged to the rearward portion of said seat board, apair of braces pivoted to the forward portion of said seat board onopposite sides thereof and a pair of arm rests each having one endthereof pivotally connected to said seat back and the other endpivotally connected to one of said braces, each of said arm rests beingcomprised of two members slidable longitudinally of each other so thatsaid folded seat can be horizontally within said cavity and can beextended to place said seat back in substantially vertical position andsaid arm rests in substantially horizontal position above said seatboard.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 538,388 Schonfeld Apr. 30, 1895 723,973 Alexander Mar. 31,1903 904,053 Eastburn et al Nov. 17, 1908 1,196,427 Brandenburg Aug. 29,1916 1,520,301 Michel Dec. 23, 1924 1,950,016 Zuckerman Mar. 6, 19342,113,704: Merrett Apr. 12, 1938 2,219,643 Zaio Oct. 29, 1940 2,556,252Bergman June 12, 1951

